Yeah, it is really kinda kludgy. I originally took it out
of the Linux kernel Makefile, since I knew we'd have some
odd uname reports. It's grown and grown since each new
version of the Win32 Cygnus tools seem to report version in a
completely different format. I think they're up to something
like "0.92.1 (4/19/99)", whereas every Unix I can think of
does something like "2.2.4" or "5.7".
Our Makefiles aren't very pretty, and they also have the
added effect of tying a platform to a compiler in many
cases (VC is always expected on Win32). I'm all in favor
of changes to alleviate this problem.
-- Shaw Terwilliger